Why is calvin coolidge a bad president

Calvin Coolidge was born in the New England state of Vermont in July , placing him very much in the nineteenth century. His father was a public official and farmer, but the son became a lawyer, showing his independence by setting up his own law firm by the age of One commentator has argued that it was the Vermont background that in part made him so taciturn.

According to this analysis, the state has extremes of climate with cold evenings in autumn and spring that make socializing difficult. Coolidge, however, took silence to extremes. Beneath the silence, however, there could be steely determination. He successfully wooed a vivacious girl whom many thought above him; many more would wonder how she put up with him over the years, although his private life was kept intensely private and they appear to have loved each other devotedly.

Coolidge rose gradually but unspectacularly up the political ladder until he became Governor of Massachusetts. Here he came to national attention by his stern handling of a police strike where he fired the strikers and brought in the State Guard to maintain order. The means by which Coolidge learned of his elevation to the presidency set the tone for his administration.

A messenger delivered the news. His father, as a local notary, swore him in by the light of a kerosene lamp; he may have got the words of the oath wrong. This was a very nineteenth-century scene and Coolidge effectively operated a nineteenth-century presidency. His view of administration was that it should avoid harm rather than promote good.

It was the job of the president to enforce the law as it stood not to change it. He never did what someone else could have done instead. He attempted to control Congress by holding working breakfasts but his silence made them self-defeating. They never knew whether he had listened or not, although perhaps months later they might recognise their suggestions in something he said or did as president.

Perhaps H. He once said that if ten troubles came along the road towards him, nine would fall into the ditch before they neared him. There was initially much scepticism among his fellow politicians as to his ability to run the office of president,and - noting his reluctance to do anything but uphold the law - many felt he would be better sitting on the Supreme Court.

The USA did appear very prosperous, and while Coolidge could take no credit for this, the reputation of all leaders is enhanced when their country appears to be doing well. Coolidge spoke in his inaugural address of problems such as lynching, child labour and low wages for women. Yet he did nothing to overcome any of these issues. His government saw successive tax reductions and yet a surplus of revenue. Coolidge refused to provide government assistance for farmers, causing a division within the Republican Party during his second term in office.

Coolidge also failed to create banking restrictions. Due to bad investments on the part of banks, numerous people in the U. In , Coolidge chose not to run for reelection. The Republicans nominated Herbert Hoover as his replacement. Because the economy still seemed to be growing, Hoover won the election easily -- by six million votes. Coolidge retired from politics.

He died on January 5, , in Northampton. Toggle navigation. Jump to: navigation , search. Gradually, the young lawyer got a start in politics, serving on Republican-Party committees, then in city government, then as a state representative in Boston, and finally as governor of Massachusetts.

In his own party, the Republican Party, President Theodore Roosevelt personified an active presidency. The Democratic president Woodrow Wilson also signed many progressive laws, including one creating the federal income tax.

Coolidge differed from both these presidents in preferring caution. Coolidge was popular, in part because he was always civil and opposed negative campaigning. He understood that to attack an opponent was to advertise that opponent.

Voters also liked him because of his hard work and devotion to service. As a lawyer, Coolidge often represented immigrants in court, sometimes for free, and an impressive share of Irish and German immigrants, new citizens of Massachusetts, backed him when he ran for office. It was just after World War I, and in many cities, underpaid workers were going out on strike.

The contracts of the Boston police did not permit them to do so, yet the members of the force walked off the job. Riots and looting ensued. The police commissioner fired the police, and as governor, Coolidge called in the National Guard. Instead it propelled him to national prominence. The great challenge for the White House in the s was to curtail the massive debt that was the legacy of World War I.

If America could not cut back this debt, it would lose its new preeminence in the world. The obvious solution was to raise taxes. Yet tax rates were already so high that businesses and individuals wasted valuable energy finding ways not to pay. Revenues did not come in as predicted. Around the same time that President Harding suddenly passed away in August , the presidency became mired in the scandal known as Teapot Dome.

He hired special prosecutors from both parties to sort out the Teapot Dome scandal and set out not merely to reduce budget increases but to reduce spending altogether. Coolidge also worked on the tax problem. He and his Treasury secretary, Andrew Mellon, believed firms that got to keep more of their money would conduct more business, hire more workers, and invest more money back into their operations. Then the government might collect greater tax revenue than expected due to the increased economic activity.

So the administration and Congress lowered top tax rates all the way down to 25 percent. The strategy worked, along with the burgeoning expansion of prosperity. Enough cash flowed in to keep the federal budget balanced and to cut the debt by one-third. When Coolidge left office, the budget was actually smaller than when he had come in 67 months before. History books and fiction sometimes treat the s as an economic bubble. Instead of working six days, employees could earn enough by working only five.

In the s, both parties overwhelmingly backed immigration restriction. When a blister he got while playing tennis on the White House court became infected, the infection spread throughout his body. There were no antibiotics in those days and, after a week, Calvin Jr. Like Lincoln, another president who lost a young son while in office, Coolidge persevered, winning his first campaign for president the same year with a majority larger than those of his opponents combined.

Coolidge received electoral votes to Democrat John W.